The Grim Reefer
Ready for some NOBALL!!!
Either blue plus and purple plus or two blue plus.
The T5 Q&a Thread
- Thread starter JohnL
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Either blue plus and purple plus or two blue plus.
The Grim Reefer
Ready for some NOBALL!!!
6 lamps will work but I'd stick to ATI lamps. on a 12" tank you don't need a lot of output BUT you don't want your wants to get cooked in a crappy fixture with poor cooling either. I'd do a Tek with an external fan blowing over the top if it were mine.
The Grim Reefer
Ready for some NOBALL!!!
Don't HAVE to have moonlight but they are cool. 6 lamp LET retro from reefgeek would let you keep anything. If you don't want clams, anemones or SPS then go 4 lamp retro and throw in a couple LED strip lights for moonlights.
I had the same tank with a 4x24 Current USA Sundial fixture with crappy bulbs (which is FAR inferior to a 6 bulb Sunpower), and I had a Monti that was doing well at the top of the tank. You should be able to keep just about any SPS with the 6 bulb and a good set of bulbs.
Yeah I have the 4x24 sundial on it now. with softies and a few LPS. Plan on moving all the corals in it now over to another tank and going SPS dominant. Figured 6 would work but with the price of lights wanted to make sure it would work before commiting. Thx for the advice.
Replacement lights
Replacement lights
Hi all
Currently running a ATI Powermodule 8 x 54 watts
Appreciate advice on replacement bulbs
Currently running front to back:
ATI Blue+
ATI AB Special
ATI Blue+
ATI AB Special
ATI Blue+
Geissemann Actinic
KZ Fiji Purple
ATI Blue Plus
Would like more blue if possible
Not too interested in rapid coral growth - may start going more towards an anemone tank
Thanks!
Replacement lights
Hi all
Currently running a ATI Powermodule 8 x 54 watts
Appreciate advice on replacement bulbs
Currently running front to back:
ATI Blue+
ATI AB Special
ATI Blue+
ATI AB Special
ATI Blue+
Geissemann Actinic
KZ Fiji Purple
ATI Blue Plus
Would like more blue if possible
Not too interested in rapid coral growth - may start going more towards an anemone tank
Thanks!
rtparty
Raise The Reef!
5 ATI Blue Plus, 2 ATI Purple Plus and 1 GE 6500k.
Blue
Purple
Blue
GE
Blue
Purple
Blue
Blue
Might need to play around a little bit for dusk dawn but keep the Purples close to center. You want the light striking the viewing side of the corals.
TropTrea
New member
For Dawn to Dusk my preference is using atinics plus kust enough of the Blue + bulbs to make you happy with a visual effect. For some using all blue + make them happy however I personaly prefer tank even bluer in that time period. Yet running 100% atinics like I did initialy was not to a lot of peoples likeing as it appears too dark. I definatly would not run Purple Plus or the GE 6500 on the dawn to dusk circuit unless you were using multiple purple + bulbs.
Need to replace my lighting fixture. Currently running 2x96watt PC lights. Want to go T5 but not sure what fixture I need.
Tank 46 gal Bowfront (36"L x 16.25"W x 20"H)
Fish, live rock and softies (leathers, shrooms, etc)
I have been looking at a T5 fixture with 4x39watt bulbs, but not sure how that translates to what I had (192wt vs 156wt). I have heard that T5s are brighter, but that is all I know. Will T5 4x39 be the correct light?
Any help and recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Tank 46 gal Bowfront (36"L x 16.25"W x 20"H)
Fish, live rock and softies (leathers, shrooms, etc)
I have been looking at a T5 fixture with 4x39watt bulbs, but not sure how that translates to what I had (192wt vs 156wt). I have heard that T5s are brighter, but that is all I know. Will T5 4x39 be the correct light?
Any help and recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
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This thread is huge! Way too big to sort through -- so why not add to it.
I have a new (to me, Current USA) fixture with 6 bulbs- not sure of the order since I was playing with it recently, but there are 4 blue+, fiji purple, and ATI actinic. Needless to say it is very blue. I moved some lamps around since i liked the color a little better when I was sliding the fixture front to back but could never replicate that. Is there a better order or should I swap one of the blue+ lamps for something else.
I have a new (to me, Current USA) fixture with 6 bulbs- not sure of the order since I was playing with it recently, but there are 4 blue+, fiji purple, and ATI actinic. Needless to say it is very blue. I moved some lamps around since i liked the color a little better when I was sliding the fixture front to back but could never replicate that. Is there a better order or should I swap one of the blue+ lamps for something else.
TropTrea
New member
Those bow fronts and corner tanks can realy be a chalange to light up. My preference would a 6 bulb fixture if you fit it over your tank. However I will assure you that that 156 watts of HO -T-5 will give you more and better lighting that the 192 watts of PC's. With the POC bulbs there is simply too much loss in real light do to the construction of the bulb and reflectors.
TropTrea
New member
I'd relpace on of the Blue Plus bulbs with an Aqua Plus. This would brighten things up slightly.
Use two blue plus and the atinic on you dawn to dusk then the rest of the bulbbs on your mid day period.
Aqua Plus? Never heard of it.
If you want to get the most out of that light and make the tank a little brighter, you could replace the actinic with a KZ Coral Light or ATI Aquablue Special. Actinic bulbs don't put out much light if you're keeping corals. I prefer the KZ bulb because it's a nice crisp white, and brings out colors better than the ATI bulb IMO. If the tank is still too blue, you could replace one of the Blue+ with a KZ New Generation. The New Gen is blue, but not as deep blue as the Blue+. IMO it looks like it's right between a Blue+ and an Aquablue Special.
Use 2 Blue+ for dusk/dawn.
I have a 6 bulb sunpower that was over a 75 gallon sps tank now is lps and zoas in that tank. What bulbs do you recommend? Some of the lps and zoas aren't happy about the bright light. Right now 3 blue plus, one purple plus and 2 abs. I've done away with the abs over my new sps tank.
You could swap out a couple of your bulbs with actinics. It'll make your colors look good, and they put out a lot less PAR than Blue+ or ABS.
The Grim Reefer
Ready for some NOBALL!!!
It's great that others are jumping in and answering questions but lets all get on the same page with the lamp names or we're going to confuse the hell out of people.
I am aware of Aquablue plus lamps by Giesemann and Aquablue special lamps by ATI. Both are close, white with a blue tint. The Giesemann version has a little less blue. KZ makes a Koral light that is slightly less blue than the Giesemann and a Koral Light New Generation that is a little more blue than the ATI Aquablue.
I typically don't recommend Actinic lamps unless you need to tone down the PAR. Reason being that once all your lights come on they don't make much of a difference as far as the look of the tank goes. That doesn't make me right and others wrong. It's just my observations having used a lot of different combinations of lamps.
Unless I see some obvious bad advice I am more or less lurking more than answering unless someone specifically asks for me. It isn't like I have some super secret information. I just have a lot of free time and have played with most of the T5 stuff out there before others but there hasn't been a lot of advances the last couple years so plenty of folks know what I do.
Carry on....
I am aware of Aquablue plus lamps by Giesemann and Aquablue special lamps by ATI. Both are close, white with a blue tint. The Giesemann version has a little less blue. KZ makes a Koral light that is slightly less blue than the Giesemann and a Koral Light New Generation that is a little more blue than the ATI Aquablue.
I typically don't recommend Actinic lamps unless you need to tone down the PAR. Reason being that once all your lights come on they don't make much of a difference as far as the look of the tank goes. That doesn't make me right and others wrong. It's just my observations having used a lot of different combinations of lamps.
Unless I see some obvious bad advice I am more or less lurking more than answering unless someone specifically asks for me. It isn't like I have some super secret information. I just have a lot of free time and have played with most of the T5 stuff out there before others but there hasn't been a lot of advances the last couple years so plenty of folks know what I do.
Carry on....
rtparty
Raise The Reef!
I agree, I don't normally recommend them either. The only reason I did in this case was because jkeim1974 said that he put the fixture over a LPS and Zoa tank, and "Some of the lps and zoas aren't happy about the bright light." I assumed that he wanted to tone it down a little.
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